The invention herein disclosed is concerned with the orderly presentation of graphic materials in a manner that will utilize present developments and technologies. Related prior art developments include the printed page and the bound volume or book, insofar as the printed page is an ordered presentation of graphic materials and a book is a serial presentation of related pages that makes indexing or search operations easier. The invention is also related to microfilm and microfiche developments which have previously made it possible for the materials of a printed page to be reduced in size for preservation on film whereby the bulk size of materials previously presented in page or book form can be substantially reduced. For indexing and mounting purposes, aperture cards and other film mounting devices have been used for the convenient preservation of the film images for later and convenient retrieval of desired information.
In connection with microfilm, microfiche and aperture card developments, previous inventions have been directed to means and apparatus for sorting and redisplaying or copying the stored materials. In general such previous selection devices have either relied on mechanical manipulation, as where the microfilm is unreeled from a storage spool, or on electrical or electronic selection of individual film frames. Other selection systems utilizing aperture cards or microfiche jackets are concerned with the location of single or multiple page film mounting devices. Once the proper aperture card or microfiche film card or envelope or jacket has been selected, however, individual user manipulation is usually required for the selection and display of each separate page presented by the carrier film. The selection of the actual page to be displayed and of each successive page to be viewed thereafter requires hand manipulative operations that are not fully satisfactory. Even where guidance is provided by a grid index card, successive image selection or page to page stepping is usually not regulated or automatic and, accordingly, the serial presentation of successive page images is not facilitated.
Within the scope of prior developments it is possible to present all of the materials that normally would be provided in a book on a single film sheet. With a reduction ratio of 24X, a 6 .times. 4 inches microfiche card could contain 98 letter size pages. Accordingly, a full length book of just under 400 pages could be presented on four microfiche cards. With greater reduction ratios the materials of a full length 400-page book could be presented on a single microfiche card of the same size.
The weight and bulk advantages of such present developments are recognized, but it is not believed, however, that these advantages will encourage the extensive publication of book type materials in this microfiche type presentation. Problems are still involved in the fields of cataloging such a microfiche book for easy selection, use and duplication, and it is not believed that reader or user requirements are at present fully satisfied by the desk type readers or reader-printers which utilize microfiche cards or jackets. The mentioned problems of individual image or page selection and the step presentation of successive pages are believed to present barriers to the widespread usage of presently existing formats in substitution for books that reader-users can hold at desk level or in the lap for convenient observation. The bulk size of present reader-selector units and an associated problem in the limited positions for image display are believed to be factors limiting the more widespread usage. A system presenting improved solutions to the outlined problems that will also improve indexing and retrieval operations while again reducing the bulk size of both the required apparatus and the stored and cataloged materials is believed to be advantageous.